The Half Bird

Discover one woman's solo journey from Land’s End to Greece, embracing solitude, self-discovery, and resilience

'A lesson on how to live, how to heal, how to grow and how to fly’ - Gordan Buchanan

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'We have no idea how much resilience there is inside us until we have to draw on it. We learn that we grow through adversity only as we go through it. That we crave happiness like plants leaning toward the light'

In 2016, Susan Smillie quit her job to sail round the British Isles aboard her beloved yacht Isean. Yet when it came to rounding the tip of Cornwall, she unexpectedly headed south, leaving home in her wake.

Over the next three years she sailed the continent, living with only the basics she had aboard, by her wits, and via the kindness of the people and beauty of the coasts she encountered.

But Susan’s travels were just the beginning of her spiritual journey. Could she make the wild, unruly sea her home?

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Praise for The Half Bird


'A beautiful, wise and open-hearted odyssey through life, loves and the sea' Patrick Barkham, author of The Butterfly Isles

'I didn't know a love song between a woman and her boat could transport, and transfix me. The Half Bird made my heart whole' Rhik Samadder, author of I Never Said I Loved You

'It’s hard to read The Half Bird without wondering whether you could do it too. It may be better to start by pondering Smillie’s wider message – that to work out what will truly make you happy, you first need to stop and smell the air around you' Guardian

'Told with all the invigorating energy of a crisp wind under a cloudless sky' Charlotte Higgins, Chief culture writer, Guardian

‘Smillie finds a freedom, beauty, and joy in amongst the rolling waves and shifting tides of loss, illness, and grief. The Half Bird is an immensely enjoyable ocean adventure, but what emerges is a deeply inspiring story about the quiet strengths that reside within us all’ Will Millard